LOTRO Eriador Scavenger Hunt Guide - Discover Tales and Locations Again

Part of the LOTRO Anniversary Event is the Eriador Scavenger Hunt, a lower-level version of the main Scavenger, catering for people who are nowhere near end game. Random scrolls and requests have been found hanging off the Party Tree, confounding Hobbit, Waldo Rumble. Divided into Travels, Trifles and Tales, the hunt sees you journeying into various parts of Middle-Earth. But in this case, you do not leave Eriador. Here I am going through the Hunt with my Evernight Guardian and my Crickhollow Beorning. Hope you enjoy – and I hope this helps you out too!

I have now something for all years 1-11! (NB: I am very slowly turning this into a guide, but it may take another Anniversary or two. I’ve tried to provide helpful links for each year to point the way, if I haven’t guide-ified it myself already).

Another Lovely Year

Each part of the Scavenger Hunt is made up of a “Year” quest and 1, 2 or 3 of the categories mentioned above. That means you can progress the Anniversary wrapper Another Lovely Year by up to four quests for each “Year” that you complete. Not all years have all three components, however – just so you’re aware!

You can also complete the Eriador and the non-Eriador ones if you can manage them.

Scavenger Hunt Quest-Givers

Note the quest-givers for the “wrappers” are different for the main Scavenger Hunt and the Eriador one.

• Odilia Rumble (Eriador)
• Waldo Rumble (Main)

I wanted to just relax and enjoy the Eriador Hunt cards, but my level means I’m too high to pick up the “wrapper” from Odilia Rumble to get the pet reward.

Eriador Scavenger Hunt Eriador Year 1

So, Year 1 of the Eriador Scavenger Hunt still sends you off to a good number of places: The Shire, Ered Luin, Bree-land, the Lone-Lands, Evendim, the North Downs and Rivendell! Each of the components awards Anniversary Tokens. But doing it this was is a slower, more relaxed way than beating up other players in Beer-Brawling.

Planning Year 1

If you pick up Travels, Tales and Trifles, it is then possible to group them so you achieve objectives for them all fairly efficiently. There’s no rush, however!

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Year 1 Trifles: Old Foes

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Year 1 Tales: Frodo

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Year 1 Travels: Towering Monuments

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Eriador Scavenger Hunt: Year 2

Year 2 is only made up of two components: Tales and Trifles, though the trifles are anything but trifling!

Year 2 Tales: Sam

This time we are tracking events and people who are important to Samwise Gamgee. We start by paying our respects to the honoured gardener and father of Sam, Gaffer Gamgee. Then I needed to purchase a small beer for Rosie Cotton, which I obtained at The Green Dragon, as it’s closest to Rosie’s Home.

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How to Make a Tater and Coney Stew

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Year 2 Trifles: Reflections I

Once you see what Year 2 Trifles is, you won’t be surprised that I didn’t do it. The “Trifles” are a long series of Instances, some of which cannot be Solo’d until a really high level. But you only have to complete one card per year to get that year’s Scavenger reward.

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Eriador Scavenger Hunt: Year 3

Year 3 is really quick, if you have stable-masters unlocked. It’s made up of Travels and Tales, with just one component required for each. But still, I love wandering around in LOTRO, and Year 3 took me to two beautiful locations: Rivendell and Evendim.

Year 3 Tales: Boromir

Boromir, the Man of Gondor is the focus of Year 3 Tales. It is here where you understand his passion for one of the last bastions against Mordor and also get hints of his desire for the One Ring. At the Council of Elrond (which weirdly I read yesterday, and did Year 3 Travels today), he suggests the Ring could be used against the Enemy in War. So, to represent this, I was taken to Rivendell to the Spire of Meeting. There, I needed to use the /talk emote. It seems fitting that it was a Race of Men character I completed Year 3 with, although admittedly N’wyn Glinmaethor is from Rohan.

Year 3 Travels: Heights & Depths

Year 3 Travels takes you to one of those “must visit” places in LOTRO. It’s a location that everyone absolutey has to go and take screenshots: High King’s Crossing Colossus in Evendim.

Unlocking the Rope at High King’s Crossing

Unlike Year 1, however, you are required to scale the rope to the top of the Colossus. So, if you are round about Level 30-35, make sure you’ve done the Repairing the Catapult quest chain. Once you have completed this, you are able to use the long rope to scale the Colossus!

Because my computer kept crashing I didn’t manage to screenshot this on my main character. So here’s my Crickhollow Warden from her visit there!

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Eriador Scavenger Hunt: Year 4

Year 4 Tales: Aragorn

For Year 4 we look at three key parts of Aragorn’s Tale in Eriador. Firstly, as Strider the Ranger – you smoke by the stage in the Prancing Pony. There of course he witnessed Frodo’s “accident” with the Ring. I then have the trek to Weathertop in the Lone-lands, where the Company had to fend off the Black Riders and tend to Frodo’s wound. And finally we go and meet the lovely Arwen in Rivendell. This is, if memory serves, the last time they get to speak before the War of the Ring reaches its height. There he was gifted a banner made by Arwen, which he later unfurls when unleashing the Oathbreaker army.

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Year 4 Travels: Orc Clans

I probably overlooked Tales because I saw that Orc Clans meant being able to go crack a few Orc skulls! In this one you need

1. 10 × Ongburz Orcs
2. 10 × Tarkrip Orcs

The first region that came to mind for this was The North Downs. I picked off my Ongburz Orcs in Dol Dinen and my Tarkrip Orcs in Nan Wathren. Although I must say, Tarkrip Orcs can be found in many places. The Wiki has some other suggestions.

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Eriador Scavenger Hunt: Year 5

This time around I was a bit more careful and completed Tales and Travels! I really love the fact that the Scavenger Hunt ‘forces’ you visit many regions.

Year 5 Tales: Merry

Onto other members of The Fellowship of the Ring! For year 5 it is Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck. I managed to mislay (or accidentally not take) the screenshots of remembrances. I’m not perfect! But you’ll need to head to Brandy Hall in Buckland for those.

Carry Packs to the Ponies in Front of Bag End

You relive a small snippet of each character’s journey in the “Tales” aspect of the Scavenger Hunt. So in this case, you just have to pick up one pack and take it to the ponies nearby!

Visit Bucklebury Ferry

Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, along with their ponies had to cross Bucklebury Ferry. This was knowing full well that the Black Riders, whoever they were, were searching for them. You can’t cross on the ferry itself, but you can swim. Or just stand and fish – it’s up to you! Bucklebury Ferry is a little bit West of Bamfurlong.

Gather Remembrances in Bonfire Glade

Time to find more of those floating books! Bonfire Glade is part of The Old Forest Deed. It can be easily reached from Buckland itself.

Study the maps in Elrond’s House

I wanted to find all the maps in The Last Homely House without looking them up. So I was glad to actually manage this. If memory serves, Gandalf later presumes Merry did not look at maps. This reply was that he did but he couldn’t recall them. I wouldn’t have remembered them either! You can find the maps in:

• Bilbo’s Room
• Elrond’s Library
• The Hall of Fire

Year 5 Travels: Bodies of Water

Ah, water, rivers and lakes – and those beautiful LOTRO Water Reflections. Definitely take time to Stop and Stare during Year 5 Travels. You have to visit 3 picturesque locations – Lake Evendim, Nen Harn in Bree-land and the Ford of Bruinen in the Trollshaws. The Ford is a key part of the Fellowship’s journey as Elrond (along with ‘touches’ from Gandalf) raised up its waters against the Nazgul.

Any excuse to revisit Evendim I will take, but that Lake is huge! So in this case I did refer to the Wiki to find coordinates of the remembrances. However I did manage Nen Harn and the Ford of Bruinen unaided. But these locations are just so pretty!

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Eriador Year 6

For the Eriador Scavenger Hunt, it seems the only part you have available is Year 6 Tales: Pippin. Not that I was complaining about it!

Year 6 Tales: Pippin

The story focus now switches to Merry’s companion, Peregrin “Pippin” Took. Unsurprisingly, there is a focus on food here though no mention of “What about Second Breakfast?”!

Gather Remembrances at the Great Smials

A few quests take you to the Great Smials and its library, in Tookland. One Remembrance is cleverly situated where you find out that “The Ghost of Old Took” is, in fact, a grey squirrel!

Steal Farmer Maggot’s Mushrooms

You’ll find this significantly easier than Maggot’s Mushroom Hunt during the LOTRO Farmers Faire! His dogs are not stalking you this time, so you can just nip into the mushroom tents and steal some from each of the three! But as mushroom stealing was something Frodo, Pippin and Merry had done as young Hobbits, it seems only fair to join in. For posterity, you know?

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Eriador Year 7

As with year 6, the Eriador Hunt only provides one component – this time it’s Travels.

Year 7 Travels: Places of Battle

I got to visit two places of important battles – the Greenfields of The Shire and Fornost in the North Downs. They are two very contrasting areas, especially as the forces of Angmar are found to be inhabiting Fornost once more. Fornost also plays a part in the Epic Questline around Narmaleth and Amarthiel. A quick note: The Remembrances in Fornost are between Norbury Gates and the Instance portal. You do not need to go into Instances.

However I was so glad LOTRO placed a Remembrance in the ‘hand’ at Fornost! If you need a ‘hand’ finding the Remembrances, the Wiki can help. See the “Walkthrough & Notes” tab on this page.

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Eriador Year 8

There are a couple of aspects to Year 8. However, as I was running the Scavenger Hunt on a Sunday (my day off) I didn’t fancy doing the Tombs one. I wil add it later, though.

Year 8 Tales: Gimli

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Year 8 Travels: Tombs and Haunts

Having recently spent a fair amount of time in the Barrow-Downs while writing FanFiction, I decided I needed a break!

I’ve finally completed this so, Year 8 Travels: Tombs and Haunts sees you journey in both the Northern and Southern Barrow-Downs. You’ll need to actually enter each of the Barrows to tick them off the list. To save duplicating things on the web, I’ve linked to the Wiki to help you find the Barrows.

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Eriador Year 9

I was starting to get a little tired by Year 9, given I had started from year 3 or something on this particular day. Fear not, I intend to get another of my characters through the Eriador Scavenger Hunt and plug the gap. Especially as year 9 probably has my favourite quest of the whole thing, which I haven’t managed to do yet!

Year 9 Tales: Gandalf

Year 9 sees us track three things that Gandalf the Grey did.

• Set Off Fireworks at the Party Tree. Sadly interacting with the Fireworks object did not launch any, at least not for me. But if you have the Dragon Fireworks launcher that would be perfect here! If not, you’ll have to settle for the Eagle Fireworks Launcher.
• Scold Barliman Butterbur at the Prancing Pony in Bree. Barliman has many people vying for his attention, but Gandalf wanted to make sure his letter got delivered!
• Talk with Radagast the Brown at Agamaur (in the Lone-lands). This is where Radagast reports that the Nine were abroad once more. NB: if you are Kindred with the Eglain, you can use Return to Ost Guruth, walk or ride around the Circle of Blood and up the path to Agamaur.

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Year 9 Travels: Middle-Earth Curiosities

The Snow-Man of Ered Luin

The Sand Castle of Evendim

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Eriador Year 10

We’ve made it to year 10! I didn’t think I’d get this far this year, but I’m glad I could prove myself wrong! For Year 10 we track key moments for Bilbo Baggins, whose adventures led to the events of the War of the Ring.

Year 10 Tales: Bilbo

Give a /Talk at the Party Tree

As Bilbo did, stand on a table to give a talk. My Beorning was not required to be in human form, so “Roar, Growl, Growl, Grunt, Roar!”.

See What’s on the Mantlepiece at Bag End

To paraphrase Bilbo: “yes, yes Gandalf, look the Ring is in this envelope here, honest! Oh wait, no, it’s in my pocket. Awkward!”

Visit Stone Trolls Glade

This is where Bilbo’s company of Dwarves would have been cooked, if the Trolls had decided how to cook them! The Fellowship of the Ring also visit here, with Frodo getting a hint of his Uncle’s adventures.

/Sing to Bilbo in the Hall of Fire

My Beorning doesn’t sing, but never mind!

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Bilbo’s Wooden Box

When Frodo gets time alone with Bilbo in the Last Homely House, he receives two gifts from Bilbo’s adventures. Firstly Sting (can only be called a sword by Hobbits!) and the Mithril mail armour, which later saves Frodo’s life. And was likely “worth more in value than the whole Shire” according to Gandalf!

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Eriador Year 11

And lastly we come to the final stage of the Eriador Scavenger Hunt! All you have to do this time is Year 11 Tales: Gollum. However you have a trek on your hands!

Year 11 Tales: Gollum

Time to track the creature in the Trollshaws then locate Gollum’s Cave!

Visit Garbert’s Cottage

THe first part of Year 11 is about rerunning (or running for the first time!) the instance A Trap for the Creature. You can find Gollum at Garbert’s Cottage in the Trollshaws.

Health Warning: I had to run it twice because Gollum was too slippery and lost me! You have to keep up with him to not lose the quest-giver that completes the instance!

Goblin Town Map

Because you need to find Gollum’s Cave, you’ll have to travel all the way through Goblin Town. I’ve tried a few maps over the years to navigate these tunnels. But the best one by far came from this website. I’ve uploaded it here also to help you, but all the work was done by the generous player who ran that website!

Generally, if you ensure you’re roughly going North, and don’t enter the Throne Room instances, you should find it.

Search for Precious in Gollum’s Cave

…and collect three Remembrances. Once you have (finally) found Gollum’s Cave, you need to search his little island for Precious. And you’ll relive Gollum’s distress to find it missing. There are three Remembrances, one of which is in tunnel as soon as you enter the Gollum’s Cave area.

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TL;DR The LOTRO Eriador Scavenger Hunt – Relax and Enjoy

Away from the grind of festivals, the Eriador Scavenger Hunt offers something a bit different. You can experience some story, relax and travel around Eriador. Sure, you can earn LOTRO Anniversary Event tokens but whether you can solo the Scavenger hunt or go with a friend or two – the main focus is to enjoy it. So go do that!

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